The present invention relates to a transmission operating device and, more particularly, to a transmission operating device using control cables as a means for transmitting an operational force.
A control cable comprises fundamentally a flexible conduit and a flexible inner wire comprising a strand of steel wire, which is slidably inserted into the conduit, and is constructed so as to transmit a push or pull load acted on one end of the inner wire to the other end in order to operate a remote driven device. In general, rods are connected with both ends of the inner wire, respectively, in the state that the rods are partially inserted into guide pipes which are pivotally connected with both ends of the conduit. However, the rods and the guide pipes are ignored in the specification in order to simplify the description.
A transmission operating device using control cables is recently used as a means for remotely operating a gear transmission in a vehicle such as a front-wheel-drive light motorcar having a front engine and a rear-wheel-drive bus or truck having a rear engine. According to such a transmission operating device, weight and cost thereof are reduced and assembling work is made easy.
Such a transmission operating device has two control cables arranged parallel to each other. When the inner wires of the control cables are pushed or pulled in the same direction at the same time, a shifting operation is performed. Further, when the inner wires are pushed or pulled in the reverse direction with each other at the same time, a selecting operation is performed.
In conventional transmission operating devices using two control cables, a connecting arm, extending in a horizonal plain, with which the two inner wires are connected at both ends of the arm is rotated around a vertical axis at a middle point between the both ends in order to push or pull the inner wires in the reverse direction with each other at the same time. Then, a change speed lever for operating the connecting arm is also generally constructed so as to rotate around the axis of the lever.
In a driving side of such a conventional device, a driver is apt to feel a great physical disorder, since the shift pattern of the change speed lever is different from generally used shift patterns that the change speed lever is operated in two directions perpendicular to each other, such as H-shape.
Further, in a driven side of the device, a mechanism for transmitting an operational force of the device becomes complicated, and the number of parts of the mechanism becomes increased, since the selecting operation is performed based on a rotational motion of a shift rod for operating shift forks of the transmission. Therefore, a range of applying the mechanism to transmissions is limited to special uses and, further, becomes narrow.
A object of the present invention is to provide a transmission operating device constructed so as to operate the change speed lever in two directions perpendicular to each other, and being capable of being applied to various transmissions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transmission operating device being constructed so as to directly perform a selecting operation by pivotally inclining a shift rod for operating shift forks, so that the mechanism can be simplified, and being capable of being applied to various transmissions.